CHAPTER 7 — The First Survivor
CHAPTER 7 — The First Survivor
I couldn't breathe.
The photograph trembled in my hands as I stared at the little boy standing beside Emma.
The resemblance wasn't perfect.
Thirty-five years changes a face.
But the eyes...
The scar above the left eyebrow...
The crooked smile...
It was me.
Director Hayes slid another folder across the table.
"Your adoption records were sealed under a national security exemption."
"I was told my parents died in a car accident."
"They didn't."
My pulse pounded in my ears.
"Who were they?"
Hayes hesitated.
"We never identified your father."
"And my mother?"
He looked away.
"She was one of the scientists who tried to destroy Project Christmas Child from the inside."
My knees nearly gave out.
"She smuggled you out before the facility burned."
"And Emma?"
"We believed she died."
"But she was taken by Judith instead."
Pieces that had never fit together suddenly locked into place.
Judith hadn't raised Emma out of love.
She had raised her because she had been ordered to.
Emma wasn't a daughter.
She was evidence.
Three hours later, federal agents tracked Judith to an abandoned Christmas tree farm nearly fifty miles outside the city.
Snow covered the fields.
Rows of pine trees stretched into the darkness like silent soldiers.
Thermal drones detected twelve heat signatures beneath an old red barn.
"They're waiting for us," Collins whispered.
"They know we're coming."
I checked my rifle.
"They've been waiting thirty-five years."
The underground bunker beneath the barn was enormous.
Concrete corridors.
Steel blast doors.
Medical laboratories.
Children's drawings still taped to peeling walls.
One crayon picture showed twelve smiling children standing around a Christmas tree.
Every face except two had been crossed out in red ink.
Subject One.
Subject Twelve.
Me.
Emma.
At the end of the corridor stood Judith.
She wasn't running anymore.
She looked almost peaceful.
"You finally came home."
Emma stepped forward despite the weakness in her legs.
"You stole my life."
Judith sighed.
"I saved it."
"You poisoned my children!"
"They were never meant to die."
I clenched my fists.
"Liar."
"They were meant to prove Lily had inherited the resistance."
Emma's face drained of color.
"The poison..."
"...was the test."
Judith nodded.
"When Lily survived longer than expected, Mercer knew the genetics had worked."
Emma collapsed against me.
"They experimented on my babies..."
Judith's voice remained cold.
"They experimented on all of you."
A slow clap echoed through the bunker.
Dr. Evelyn Mercer stepped out of the shadows.
She looked older than the woman in the surveillance photos, but her eyes were sharp and calculating.
"After all these years..."
She smiled at Emma.
"My daughter."
Emma stared at her.
"You abandoned me."
"I preserved you."
"You murdered children."
"I created the future."
Mercer turned toward Lily.
"The world will always build stronger weapons."
May you like
She smiled.
"I simply built stronger humans."
